National (U.S.)

Comparative techniques are great for explaining difficult environmental concepts -- and good journalists use them.

By BILL DAWSON

 "Doing more with less."

The phrase is now often lampooned as a preposterous cliché, but newspaper executives must have thought at first that it was an artful way to spin the bad news of escalating staff cuts.

Publisher Joe Pepe of The Commercial Appeal, for example, used the words when he announced in late 2005 that the Memphis newspaper would slash its workforce of 774 by 170 employees.

A new federal interagency effort, intended to improve and deliver topographic information from across the US, may end up yielding significant benefits to journalists and the communities they serve.

A recent CERES/Pacific Institute report identifies water-related risks specific to eight key industries, and offers good sources on calculating and using water footprints.

A new map and report by the Center for Public Integrity make it easier to pinpoint exact locations of coal-ash deposits, a waste product of coal-fired power plants.

At the request of Congress, the National Academy of Sciences is hosting the two-day "America's Climate Choices" in Washington, DC.

Localizing the effects of climate change remains challenging. But a new tool makes it easier to at least pin down the local sources of one of the main greenhouse gases, with the inventory led by Purdue University scientists.

The massive $787 billion economic stimulus package signed into law by President Obama Feb. 17, 2009, contains extensive funding for projects with direct and indirect environmental ties — all of which can be covered from numerous angles of interest to your audience.

A new online project by two longstanding open-government groups allows people and groups to vote for the government information they would most like disclosed.

In January 2009, President Obama reversed Bush administration policy and ordered most federal agencies to err on the side of disclosure when responding to FOIA requests. Why, then, are a number of agencies still operating under the old policies?